Artemis III
Second crewed mission of the Artemis program
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Artemis III is planned to be the second crewed mission of the NASA-led Artemis lunar exploration program, with a targeted launch in mid-2027. The crew will launch aboard the Space Launch System rocket carrying the Orion spacecraft, and rendezvous in Earth orbit with one or both commercially developed Human Landing System vehicles—SpaceX's Starship HLS and Blue Origin's Blue Moon—which will be launched separately by their commercial providers. The mission will test rendezvous and docking operations and may include evaluation of the Axiom Extravehicular Mobility Unit (AxEMU) space suit. It is broadly comparable to Apollo 9 in the Apollo program.
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- Orion CM-004
- ESM-3
- Blue Moon (potentially)
- Starship HLS (potentially)[2][3][4]
The European Service Module (ESM) for Artemis III being prepared for launch | |
| Names | Exploration Mission-3 (EM-3) |
|---|---|
| Mission type | Crewed Earth orbital Orion/HLS flight[1] |
| Operator | NASA |
| Spacecraft properties | |
| Spacecraft |
|
| Manufacturer |
|
| Start of mission | |
| Launch date | Mid-2027 (planned)[3][1] |
| Rocket | Space Launch System[5] |
| Launch site | Kennedy, LC-39B |
| End of mission | |
| Landing site | Pacific Ocean (planned) |
Artemis III was originally planned as the first crewed lunar landing since Apollo 17.[6] By 2023, however, NASA had indicated the mission could proceed without a landing due to Orion spacecraft heat shield concerns and delays in Starship development. Alternative concepts studied included a crewed visit to the now cancelled Gateway space station and a low Earth-orbit docking test between Orion and Starship HLS.[7][8]
On February 27, 2026, NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman confirmed a revised plan for Artemis III to perform tests with one or both landers in Earth orbit, with Artemis IV tentatively designated as the first crewed lunar landing mission.
Overview
The original goal of Artemis III was to land a crew at the Moon's south polar region.[9] The mission would have seen two astronauts land on the surface of the Moon for a stay of about one week.[10][11][12] According to NASA, total mission duration including flights would have been about 30 days.[13] While up to four astronauts would have launched aboard Orion, two would have landed on the Moon's surface aboard Starship HLS, with the others remaining aboard Orion. Four spacewalks were planned for two astronauts. The suite of planned scientific observations included sampling lunar water ice.[citation needed]
In February 2026, the mission plan was revised to be a crewed test in low Earth orbit. Astronauts will test the docking of the Orion capsule with at least one, but possibly both, of the lunar landers from SpaceX and Blue Origin. They will also test propulsion, life support, and communication systems of the landers, and test the new spacesuits that will be used on the Moon, the Axiom Extravehicular Mobility Unit (AxEMU).[14]
Mission planners are considering both low Earth orbit (LEO) and high Earth orbit (HEO) profiles. A LEO mission could allow NASA to save an Interim Cryogenic Propulsion Stage for use on Artemis IV, while a HEO mission would better simulate thermal and operational conditions encountered near the Moon and provide a more rigorous test of Orion’s systems. As of April 2026, NASA had not finalized the mission’s orbital profile or whether it would dock with one or both HLS vehicles, with decisions dependent in part on the development progress and launch cadence of commercial partners.[15]
Spacecraft
Space Launch System
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The Space Launch System is a super-heavy-lift launcher used to launch the Orion spacecraft from Earth to a trans-lunar orbit. Its core stage for this mission will use RS-25 engines E2048, E2052, E2054, and E2057. All were previously flown on Space Shuttle missions and were refurbished by Aerojet Rocketdyne.[16][17]
Orion
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Orion is the crew transport vehicle used by all Artemis missions. It will transport the crew from Earth to lunar orbit, dock with Starship HLS, and return the crew to Earth.
The European Service Module (ESM) for Artemis III, ESM-3, was delivered to NASA from the Airbus facility in Bremen, Germany, in September 2025.[18]
Lunar landers
After a multi-phase design effort, on April 16, 2021, NASA selected SpaceX to develop Starship HLS and deliver it to near-rectilinear halo orbit (NRHO) prior to the arrival of the crew for use on the Artemis III mission. The delivery requires that Starship HLS be refueled in Earth orbit before boosting to the NRHO, and this refueling requires a pre-positioned propellant depot in Earth orbit that is filled by multiple (at least 14[19]) tanker flights.[20] Two astronauts will transfer from Orion to Starship HLS, which will descend to the lunar surface and sustain them for several days before returning them to Orion. Following the return of the astronauts, Starship HLS will be disposed of by sending it into heliocentric orbit.[21] In October 2025, NASA opened bidding for the Moon landing contract to other companies due to delays encountered by SpaceX in developing a lunar lander.[2]
Development
Upon the December 2017 ratification of the first Trump administration's Space Policy Directive 1, a crewed lunar campaign—later known as the Artemis program—using the Orion Multi-Purpose Crew Vehicle (MPCV) and a space station in lunar orbit was established. Originally billed as Exploration Mission-3 (EM-3), the goal of the mission was to send four astronauts into a near-rectilinear halo orbit around the Moon and deliver the ESPRIT and U.S. Utilization Module to the now cancelled lunar space station, known as the Gateway.[22]
By May 2019, however, ESPRIT and the U.S. Utilization Module—renamed HALO—were re-manifested to fly separately on a commercial launch vehicle. Artemis III, as it was billed, was repurposed to accelerate the first crewed lunar landing of the Artemis program by the end of 2024, with a profile that would have seen the Orion MPCV rendezvous with a minimal Gateway space station made up of only the Power and Propulsion Element and a small habitat and docking node with an attached commercially procured lunar lander known as the Human Landing System (HLS).[23]
By early 2020, plans for Orion and the HLS to rendezvous with the Gateway were abandoned in favor of direct docking of Orion and HLS, and delivery of the Gateway after Artemis III.[24][25]
On August 10, 2021, a U.S. government Office of Inspector General audit reported a conclusion that the spacesuits would not be ready until April 2025 at the earliest, likely delaying the mission from the planned late 2024 launch date.[26] Axiom Space will design the space suits, with collaboration from fashion house Prada.[27]
On November 9, 2021, the Administrator of NASA, Bill Nelson, confirmed that Artemis III would launch no earlier than 2025.[28]
In June 2023, Jim Free, NASA's associate administrator for exploration systems development, said that launch would "probably" be no earlier than 2026.[29][30] Later in December 2023, the U.S. Government Accountability Office reported the mission was unlikely to occur before 2027.[31]
In January 2024, NASA officially delayed Artemis III to no earlier than September 2026.[32]
In March 2024, NASA announced the scientific instruments to be included on the mission were a compact, autonomous seismometer suite called the Lunar Environment Monitoring Station, or LEMS. LEMS will characterize the regional structure of the Moon's crust and mantle to inform the development of lunar formation and evolution models. Another instrument is Lunar Effects on Agricultural Flora, a.k.a. LEAF, which will investigate the impact of the lunar surface environment on space crops. The third instrument is the Lunar Dielectric Analyzer, or LDA, an internationally contributed payload that will measure the regolith's ability to propagate an electric field.[33]
The European Service Module for the mission was completed and delivered to NASA in September 2024.[34]
In December 2024, NASA officially delayed Artemis III to no earlier than 2027.[13]
On May 2, 2025, the second Trump administration released its fiscal year 2026 budget proposal, which proposed canceling the SLS and Orion spacecraft after Artemis III due to the former's cost of $4 billion per launch.[35] However, on July 4, 2025, President Donald Trump signed the One Big Beautiful Bill Act into law, which included provisions that allocated funding for continued development and operation of the SLS and Orion spacecraft beyond Artemis III.[36]
On August 18, 2025, NASA reported that it had begun processing the SLS core stage's completed bottom fifth (to which the engines will be attached) at the Kennedy Space Center's Vehicle Assembly Building, while the rest of the core stage, nearing completion at Michoud Assembly Facility, New Orleans, Louisiana, was due to be shipped to Kennedy Space Center in mid-2026.[37]
In January 2026, NASA officially delayed Artemis III to no earlier than 2028.[13] However, in late February 2026, NASA expedited Artemis III to 2027, but it would no longer land on the Moon. Instead, it would conduct rendezvous and docking tests in low Earth orbit with one or both commercially developed lunar landers—SpaceX's Starship HLS and Blue Origin's Blue Moon—and to test the new Axiom Extravehicular Mobility Unit (AxEMU) space suit. As of February 2026, NASA expects Artemis III to launch in mid-2027.[3][1][38]
See also
- List of Artemis missions
- List of missions to the Moon
- Apollo 9, a mission similar to Artemis III that involved a crewed test of the lunar lander in Earth orbit
